No Fitna, just music

Just found out about this cd last night. Pulsating Arab rhythms fused with fiery Andalusian flamenco. The album is called Flamenco Arabe and is the very successful cooperation of Jose Luis Monton and Hossam Ramzy. I already had a cd by Hossam Ramzy.

The album takes you back to the old silk and spice routes to find the origins of Arabian, North African and Flamenco Music. It reaches deep into history to find the incredible journey of these nomadic tribes that caused the conception and birth of such magnificent styles of musical compostion.

A house divided cannot stand

'The Syrians did it.'
'Hell no, it was the Israelis.'
'What are you saying, can't you see this assassination has 'CIA' written all over it?'

Think again mates. Last week a UN-investigation unit stated that the murder of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri on 14th February 2005 was masterminded by some criminal network. So where does that leave Walid Jumblatt, Saad Hariri and so many others for that matter, who are still dead certain that the Syrian government was behind this horrific murder.

It is corny, but time will tell and somehow I think Lebanon will be in for a hot summer. Still no president and so many parties vying for power - not just inside Lebanon.

Fitna
Oh, and why did I not say anything about Fitna... because IMHO it proved a storm in a teacup. Wilders lived up to his promise that he was going to make a film that portrays the Koran as a fascist book that can be used by fanatics to incite violence and which preaches the oppression of women and homosexuals.

What really worries me is the other anti Koran film by Ehsan Jami. Yes, that photomodel like politician in his early twenties who is of Iranian origin. Jami rose to public fame when he launched his Committee for Ex Muslims last year. His film, slated for release later this month, is bound to hammer home his immense frustration towards Iran, Islam and the prophet.

India's finest back from Mauritius?

True, I may have started working as a teacher, but that doesn't mean I forgot all about my dream interview with none other than Shabana-ji. Quite the contrary.

When I called her Mumbai office last month I was told that Mrs Azmi (57) was in Mauritius doing some film shoot.


Since she was supposed to have returned to India today, yours truly contacted her office again today ... by email.

So do keep them fingers crossed that she is still willing to talk to me about a variety of topics, from Muslim fundamentalism to the future of mainstream Indian cinema and everything that lies in between, such as gender issues and racism.

Breaking news ...

The Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Corporation – Nederlandse Moslim Omroep (NMO) – is actually considering broadcasting ‘Fitna’, the anti-Koran film of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which is scheduled for release this coming week. The 10 to 15 minute film is said to depict the Koran as the inspiration for terrorist attacks and other violence.

NMO is presently looking into the legal pitfalls and in the midst of talks with all the board members. If they press ahead, this would indeed be a remarkble move, if only because all other Dutch television networks have already refused to broadcast Wilders’ film. The move does fit in NMO’s liberal tradition to invite criticasters of Islam.

Friend and former De Pers colleague Ana Karadarevic wrote the following article today.

De Nederlandse Moslim Omroep (NMO) overweegt serieus om Geert Wilders’ anti-Koranfilm Fitna integraal uit te zenden. De NMO zou daarmee de enige publieke omroep zijn die dit aanbod doet. Het aanbod om Fitna uit te zenden, is volgens Alfred Broer, programmamaker televisie bij de NMO, niet zo opmerkelijk als het lijkt. ‘Dit past in de traditie van de omroep om ook islamcritici aan het woord te laten. Hirsi Ali is bij ons te gast geweest, evenals Theo van Gogh. Geert Wilders hebben we de afgelopen jaren meermalen uitgenodigd, tevergeefs.’

De redactie van de NMO heeft voorgesteld om Fitna uit te zenden. De redactie wil dat Wilders na uitzending van de film met voor- en tegenstanders in discussie gaat. Vrijdagavond heeft directeur Abderrahman Farsi hierover gepraat met de Nederlandse Moslim Raad, de zendgemachtigde.

Voorzitter Abdulmajid Khairoun van de NMR staat positief tegenover het idee. Hij polste al twee juristen om advies te vragen. Er zijn nog twee voorwaarden: een aantal bestuursleden moet nog worden bereikt om hun mening te polsen en de NMR gaat niet akkoord als Fitna strafbare uitingen bevat ‘We zullen de film dan ook wel eerst moeten bekijken’, aldus Khairoun.

Dit weekend overleggen de betrokkenen met elkaar, met de bedoeling een dezer dagen de knoop door te hakken. Als de meerderheid voor uitzending is, wil de NMR gaan praten met Wilders.

Wilders maakte onlangs bekend dat hij geen omroep had kunnen vinden die de vijftien minuten durende film in zijn geheel wilde uitzenden. Hij is daarom van plan om de film op internet te zetten. Dat zou gebeuren vóór 1 april. Maar Wilders heeft steeds gezegd: ‘Als zich vandaag een omroep bij mij meldt, kan de film vanavond nog op tv.’

Ding dong ...the witch is dead.

All over the world Christians are getting ready for Easter and the resurrection of Christ. The victorious battle of good over evil. While Christians have Easter, Hindus have Holi and guess what ... it was today.

Holi celebrates the survival of Prince Prahlada who, in defiance of his father, worshipped Lord Vishnu. To kill the prince, the old king plotted with his evil, bitchy, witchy sister Holika, who claimed to be immune from burning.

He sent his pious son to sit with her in a bonfire. Good guy Prahlada survived while Holika was incinerated. With the traditional Holi bonfires, evil is banished at the same time heralding springtime , a new season bursting with life. Party time. Subh holi.

Picture: courtesy Times of India

International Women's Day. What better moment to pay my respect to ...

The Widows of Vindravan

Despite India's rapid transformation into an economic superpower, there are still some horrific spectres in the closet from time to time rearing their ugly heads.

Say "Taj Mahal" and everyone goes gaga. Say "Vindravan" and everyone goes quiet, foreign tourists that is, for in Vindravan it is devout local tourists that set the tone. They visit the town because it was here that the Hindu God Krishna in his teenage years flirted with his gopis in the forest next to the riverbank. Yet it is not just local pilgrims visiting Vindravan. The town is also home to thousands and thousands of Hindu widows,women who are seen as social outcasts once their husbands are dead.

They flock to the tempels of Vindravan and stay in these so-called widow houses, where they dress in white, chant bhajans (devotional songs) for sustenance, and pray for salvation (Moksha).

Dutch photo journalist Karijn Kakebeeke put it as follows: "India's modern answer to sati, the funeral pyre on which widows were thrown in former times." Studies show that more than of the Vindravan widows were married off at the age of twelve.

Vindravan - only three hours away from New Delhi by car and probably three days away by cow- is now home to no less than 16,000 Hindu widows.

It is this very plight of Hindu widows that catapulted Indian-Canadian Deepa Mehta into action in 1999/2000 to make the highly controversial "Water", a film about Chuyia, an 8-year-old widow in the India of 1938. She has barely met her husband but is banished by her parents to a widows' house on the edge of the Ganges. Chuyia is left there sobbing, in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the film, but she insists her parents will soon return for her.

The original cast of the film starred Shabana Azmi as one of Chuyia's protectors. But alas, it was not meant to be. Hindu nationalists protested that the film was anti-Hindu.
Some 500 demonstrators took to the streets, ransacked the set and burned Mehta in effigy. She appealed to the state government for help, but fearing more violence, local officials asked the film crew to leave. In 2005 Mehta went ahead anyway. This time with a new cast. The film was shot in Sri Lanka. An absolute must-see!!!

Check out Fazal Sheikh's superb black and white photobook Moksha on the subject. They don't come any better than this. The B/W picture in this posting is one of Sheikh's pictures.

The colour pics are stills from the film Water by Deepa Metha

School is out and I'm still standing

I am still very much alive & kicking, and what's more, still laughing. The first school week is now behind me. On the whole it went much better than expected. No real troublemakers, simply teens. Some serious, some clowns, some noisy, some sweet. And yes, some genuinly interested in what I have to say. Some even went so far as to ask me about my ethnic background. For those interested, they call me ''Juf" I guess "Sharida" is still a bridge too far.

This interest was probably brought on by my lesson about Victorian Britain and its colonial jewel in the crown: India. We moved back and forth from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice to the Anglo-Indian film Bride and Prejudice.

As said in a previous post, of course I am most definitely Indian. I have all the genetic features. I eat Indian food. I listen to Indian music. I have certain Indian values. But that's about as far as it goes, for I was born and bred in the Netherlands, with family roots in Surinam, a former Dutch colony in South America.

Perhaps this year will be the year in which I shall actually visit the Motherland, if only to interview Shabana Azmi. Can you imagine me finally going to a country which I only know from books, documentaries and Indian cinema? Me joining 1.2 BILLION countrymen. Me who comes from a single-parent family. Me who has no brothers and sisters. Me joining a sea of people who look like ... me.

If you can read this, thank a teacher!

Got a number of text messages from my former De Pers colleagues and friends this morning who were wondering how I had weathered my first working day at school. Was I perhaps ranting and raving like a madman when I left the school building? The answer: no!

It went just fine. Not spectacularly good or bad, just fine. I am still in the saddle. My head is crammed though with students' faces and all new rules and regulations that are part of a new job. Fun and tiring at the same time. Let's see what tomorrow brings.